Wedel Makes Rounds with New Book

Janine Wedel, professor of public policy, will make several appearances this month to talk about her new book, “Shadow Elite: How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government and the Free Market.”

The book, published in November 2009 by Basic Books, examines how private networks around the world, including Washington think tanks, wield significant power over domestic, foreign and financial policy — with little or no accountability.

Wedel, who joined Mason in 2002, is also affiliated with Mason’s Center for Social Science Research and Department of Sociology and Anthropology. She is a senior research fellow with New America Foundation in Washington, D.C.

Wedel also wrote “Collision and Collusion: The Strange Case of Western Aid to Eastern Europe,” and “The Private Poland: An Anthropologist Looks at Everyday Life.” She edited and contributed to “The Unplanned Society: Poland During and After Communism.”